Here is her story:
On Aug 21st my water broke. Well, it "broke". I had some waters leaking in spurts and since Elliot came the same fashion my thought was that it was go time! I had some contractions and we decided to head into the hospital so we could take full advantage of floating around in my birthing pool long before baby actually arrived.
Fast forward 6 hours. Contractions stopped, and I was only dilated to 3cms with no budging so I was sent home. What a disappointing night. It was determined that I had a high leak and since no bacteria would be introduced to baby, I could stay like this for weeks before baby would actually decide to come. I was pretty bummed out since my step mum was going out of town on Saturday and I really wanted her to be the one taking care of the turds while we were in hospital. The next day I felt like the baby was never going to come. She was sitting up super high and I had no pressure or anything. I consigned to my fate of delivering a term baby. That is, until around 5pm while waiting for supper to finish. We typically have a dance party most nights while dinner is cooking. Its my last hour with the kids before Kevin gets home and we are all usually pretty sick of eachother. It helps with the final stretch. I was carriyng around and dancing with the 15 month old baby when I got a huge contraction. I had to sit down and catch my breath... and then there was nothing. But all of a sudden Baby Alice felt crazy low again. I messaged with my sisters on facebook and mentioned that I would like to get a full night sleep and she could come int he morning if she wanted to.
On August 23rd at 5:00am I scrambled out of bed because my water was BREAKING, like all over. After putting on new clothes I decided to go back to sleep until contractions came. I knew I was having a baby today, there is no way there was any more water left. After an hour of sleep I was woken to my first contraction at 6:00am. The house was quiet with sleeping children and husband and I laid in bed until 6:20 when I decided they felt real enough to head into the hospital. I was still anticipating a few hours of quality birthing tub time. I called the midwife and we decided to meet at the hospital entrance at 7:00am. On the way out the door I had some contractions I couldn't talk through, and then when we arrived at the hospital I had a few there getting out of the car. In the elevator up my contractions were short and close, about every 20 seconds I would get a new one. We flew into the birthing room and I asked the midwife to run the regular bathtub for me to get into while she was blowing up the birthing pool. All I could think about is the water. With the two previous water births the water was incredible in taking away the pain and I just couldn't wait for the massive pool to be set up yet. As soon as the tub was full, I got in and instantly felt the urge to push. I screamed "I HAVE TO PUSH NOW OK?!!!" And hunkered down and started pushing in the hospital's tub. My midwife was so amazing. She stopped filling the pool and raced to my side. She turned on the hot water spray head and applied it to my back while letting me go ahead and push. I told her when the head was out and then I laid in the pool to push the rest of the body. It felt like lightening. Everything happened so fast. Kevin was there rubbing my back, and Heidi the midwife spraying hot water and I was making a baby happen. After the head was out, her chest was getting stuck and I had a moment of pause where I didnt feel the urge to push and I relaxed and said "I think I'm done now, I dont want to push anymore." And Kevin and Heidi yelled "SHES ALREADY PRETTY MUCH HERE!! JUST PUSH!!" Haha, ok, ok. Apparently you're not allowed to stop mid-birthing. I pushed her the rest of the way and instantly I got that amaaaaaazing feeling. Euphoric bliss. Better than any taco or orgasm ever. Seriously, if you haven't pushed out a baby before- I highly recommend it.
Unfortunately it is short lived because birthing the placenta isn't very fun, but once that is over you just get to lay in bed with a tiny human that you produced and worked hard to get there. Its pretty great.
Well, there you have it. My baby Alice who was supposed to be born in her birth pool, at a reasonable weight was born in the narrow hospital tub, as fat as can be and you know what? She's my first baby with not even a fragment of a tear. Don't know how we managed that one. All in all, we are doing pretty great she naps when I'm busy and is awake when I'd like to be sleeping. She's a hungry little hippo and so am I. We make a pretty awkward but good team.
Daddy is probably the most tired of all of us. He's having to be mom and dad to 3 crazy toddlers, do all the chores and make all the food and then at night he gets to be constantly interrupted while I chain-feed this addict baby. He's the best birth coach, best maid, and best friend I could ever ask for. So glad he was with me through the last 5 years of birthing babies. After Baby Alice was born I said "Lets not do this ever again" He heartily agreed.
Photos? Ok. How about one of me pushing out a baby, and one of the nasty purple baby on me. I'm not crying. I'm flippin' happy.
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